BMC Racing, led by US star Tejay van Garderen, upset the favorites, including reigning champions Omega Pharma-QuickStep to win the men’s team time trial world title in Ponferrada, Spain, on Sunday.
Although finishing with just four of their original six-man team — the minimum requirement — the US team got stronger as the course went on to win in a time of 1 hour, 3 minutes, 29.85 seconds.
That was 35 seconds quicker than Australian team Orica GreenEdge, who, like several other teams that started later, were impeded by rain on their run-in.
“It wasn’t a surprise,” Van Garderen said. “We definitely had respect for the other two teams here [on the podium], but we knew we had a chance. In Valkenburg [two years ago] BMC were only three seconds off winning. To be so close once, there’s no reason not to be up there again.”
BMC finished before the rain started to fall, and although they were neck-and-neck with their main rivals throughout, the difference was made up in the final 10km of the 57.1km course.
Omega, led home by reigning three-time individual time trial champion Tony Martin and with a star-studded team including former road race world champion Tom Boonen and Paris-Roubaix winner Niki Terpstra, were third, just over 3 seconds behind Orica.
They had won the last two editions of the team time trial competition. BMC’s Slovakian rider Peter Velits was part of those Omega teams and has now won the event three times in a row.
“I don’t think it’s a secret or something, it wasn’t only me in the time trial today,” Velits said. “It’s the work of the whole team, everyone deserves this victory and I’m really happy I could win again, it feels really good.”
Martin refused to blame the rain for his team’s demise.
“Rain doesn’t make a race easier, it doesn’t make it faster. For sure it’s a disadvantage to have rain, especially in the last descent, but it shouldn’t be an excuse that we lost time in the final [run-in],” Martin said.
Team Sky, led by British Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins, agonizingly missed out on a medal by just 2 seconds.
Like Orica and Omega, they finished in the wet, but they paid more for weak links.
By the halfway mark they had already lost two of their six riders, with Geraint Thomas and Salvatore Puccio dropping off, while Dario Cataldo was missing turns at the front, effectively reducing them to three riders while all their rivals were still at full strength.
In the women’s 36.15km event, US team Specialized-Lululemon retained their world title in a time of 43 minutes, 35.35 seconds, more than a minute ahead of Orica-Ais, with Astana BePink third.
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